Beloved people of
God, grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ.
AMEN.

Happy New Year!
The First Sunday in Advent marks the beginning of the New Church Year. We tend
to enter a new year with high hopes. But what happens in the new year often does
not live up to our hopes and dreams.

Advent is a season
of hope. The word “Advent” means “coming” or “arrival.” As we look forward to
our celebration of the first coming of Jesus on Christmas and anticipate his
second coming, we are filled with hope. Recognizing that all is not well in our
world, we cling to the hope that the coming of Jesus will set things
right.

Last Sunday
afternoon I had a pleasant time with Eric and Jan Luttrell in San Antonio, Texas. Eric and Jan are members of St. Andrew
who spend their winters in San
Antonio to be closer to their daughters and their
families. I was in San Antonio for the Annual
meeting of the Bonhoeffer Society and for the AmericanAcademy of Religion. At one point Jan
mentioned that several of her friends had commented on the violent protests in
Portland. The
right to protest peacefully is enshrined in the First Amendment to the
Constitution. These protests in Portland may have been intended to be peaceful,
but some who joined the protests wanted to turn them violent. The message most
protestors sought to convey tended to get lost in the
violence.

To counteract
violent images of Portland projected around the nation and world,
Mayor Charlie Hales organized a “March of Hope.” The announcement for the march
stated: “Portland Mayor Charlie Hales
invites you to join civic, community and faith leaders on Tuesday, November 22nd
at 3 pm for a March of Hope . . . As our city and nation work to move forward
after last week’s election, the most important thing that we can do, as
Portlanders, is to come together and reach out to each other and stand against
hate.”

I was coming back
into town on Monday evening, so I planned on participating in the March. My
intention was to share with you this morning my reflections on how the march
went. It seemed like a hopeful way to begin the season of
Advent.

But then Mayor
Hales canceled the “March of Hope” after hearing of a planned counter protest.
His goal had been to bring community leaders together in unity and to share a
message of hope. Competing protests would more likely have communicated chaos
and disunity. More violence could have ensued.

Mayor Hales issued
this statement: "Canceling this event
does not mean our community is canceling hope. I encourage everyone to continue
to reach out to each other and stand against hate. Reach out to our immigrants
and refugees who moved here because they believed this was a good and safe
place. Reach out to people of color, the LGBTQ community, those with
disabilities, and to everyone who needs reassurance in their everyday lives that
their civil liberties will remain protected, and say that Portland is a safe
place for all and that we will work to keep it that
way."

Our Old Testament
reading, Isaiah 2:1–5, is a message of hope addressed to the people of God in
Jerusalem and Judah. Isaiah 1
gives us an inkling of the violence and social degeneration that the people of
God had experienced. Verses 7 and 8 describe the devastation inflicted on
Judah by the Assyrian army of King
Sennacherib: “Your country lies desolate,
your cities are burned with fire; in your presence aliens devour your land; it
is desolate, as overthrown by foreigners. And daughter Zion is left like a booth
in a vineyard, like a shelter in a cucumber field, like a besieged city.”
Verses 21–23 reveal how the city of Jerusalem has brought social disorder and
injustice upon itself: “How the faithful
city has become a whore! She that was full of justice, righteousness lodged in
her— but now murderers! Your silver has become dross, your wine is mixed with
water. Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves. Everyone loves a bribe
and runs after gifts. They do not defend the orphan, and the widow’s cause does
not come before them.”

In response to
this disheartening situation the prophet Isaiah offers a word of hope. Isaiah
2:1 speaks of the word Isaiah saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. So it is actually a vision. He
envisions Mt.Zion, where the Temple was located, being established as the
highest of the mountains; and peoples from all over the world streaming to it.
At 2,510 feet Mt.Zion was less than one-fourth the height of
Mt.Hood and one-tenth the height of Mt.Everest. It was not even the highest
mountain in the vicinity of Jerusalem. In what sense could have Mt.Zion been considered the highest of the
mountains? Isaiah 2:3 gives us a clue: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the
Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that
we may walk in his paths.” It is the presence of the Lord in the Temple and the word of the Lord heard there that make
Mt.Zion the highest of the mountains. On
Mt.Zion people will receive a message of hope
from God and learn how to walk in the light of that hope.

Isaiah proclaims
that “the Lord shall judge between the
nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples.” He announces the end of
violent conflict: “they shall beat their
swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not
lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” This
was a powerful message of hope to a people devastated by war and
violence.

Some may dismiss
Isaiah’s vision as unrealistic. In the 17th century Thomas Hobbes
asserted that human beings are in a constant state of war. War has certainly not
disappeared in our own time. Apparently not much has changed from the time of
Isaiah.

But a closer look
at Isaiah’s vision reveals that he may not have been as unrealistic as it may at
first appear. In verse 5, immediately following the affirmation that they shall
learn war no more, Isaiah writes: “O
house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!” In our culture
we have a propensity to look for a quick fix to whatever ails us. Isaiah does
not offer a quick fix. He exhorts the people of God to walk in the light of the
Lord. He anticipates that his vision of hope will be fulfilled one step at a
time. And he knows that the path will not be straight. The
history of the people of God suggests that at times it may be two steps forward
and one step back, and then one step forward and two steps
back.

What is important
is to keep Isaiah’s vision alive in every generation. What is the light that we
are to walk in? Nothing less than God’s reign of peace. The Hebrew word is shalom. It refers to an absence of war
and violence. But it also entails well-being of heart, mind, soul, and body and
well-being in all our relationships to God, our fellow human beings, and all our
fellow creatures. When God’s peace reigns, there will be harmony in our
neighborhoods, communities, nations, and world. Social and ecological justice
will be established.

We are to walk in
the light of God’s reign of peace, therefore, one step at a time. Walking in the
way of peace involves using our mind and all our God-given abilities to their
fullest. But as Proverbs 16:9 reminds us, “the human mind plans the way, but the Lord
directs our steps.” Those who walk in God’s light become beacons of light,
signs of hope in our world. Walking in the light of God’s peace can be as simple
as providing a Thanksgiving box for a family in need or buying a gift for a
Giving Tree family. Such acts of kindness are visible signs of
hope.

Sponsoring a
Muslim Syrian refugee family has been challenging and could get still more
challenging; nonetheless, it has been a sign of hope, a beacon of light in our
troubled world.

Two of our young
people, Amanda Bollman and Molly Hartshorn, have gone to Standing Rock to join
the protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline. Hundreds of veterans plan to
“deploy” to Standing Rock on December 4 as an unarmed militia in protest against
the pipeline. The 1,172-mile crude oil pipeline has been an object of
controversy for months. Protestors argue that construction of the pipeline would
threaten local water supplies and desecrate culturally sacred sites. Since
Standing Rock is happening on President Obama’s watch, he is under pressure to
address the grievances being voiced.

Whether you fully
support the protest or not, the protestors concern for social, ecological, and
religious justice is a sign of hope. The protest has drawn international
attention. It is amazing to see the diversity of people who have streamed to
Standing Rock to join Native Americans who live there. They have been marching
in hope. For a time Standing Rock has become a high mountain. Protestors keep on
hoping one step at a time that justice will be done.

In President
Obama’s 2016 State of the Union address, he stated that “we spend more on our military than the next
eight nations combined." President-Elect Trump has stated that he intends to
make America great again. He has indicated
that the military needs to be improved. Isaiah’s vision of peace suggests that
the way to greatness for America would be to turn weapons of
destruction into implements of peace and healing. A shrinking military budget
could be a sign of true American greatness. What we need in our time is a dose
of prophetic imagination. Imagine freeing up billions of dollars to address our
most pressing economic, social, and ecological issues. That would be a bright
beacon of hope.

Come, people of
God, during this Advent season, let us walk in the light of the Lord! Let us
hope for God’s reign of peace one step at a time.